Two terrorist gunmen disguised as cricketers mingled with children and posed
as players before launching a hand grenade attack which left five Indian
paramilitary policemen dead in Kashmir.

Both militants were shot dead and seven bystanders were injured, in a strike described as a “suicide attack” by Omar Abdullah, Kammu and Kashmir’s chief minister.

The gunmen had concealed their weapons in a cricket kit bag as they mixed with children and young men playing on a field in front of the Central Reserve Police Force camp by a school in Bemina, in the state’s capital Srinagar, detectives said. The school was closed at the time of the attack.

“There was a deployment of CRPF personnel at the ground, some children were also playing cricket,” said Syed Ahafadul Mujtaba, deputy Inspector General of the state’s police.

“Militants disguised as cricketers and carrying guns in cricket kits opened fire and hurled grenades on them. Five CRPF men were killed in the attack, two militants were also killed, seven others were injured.

“We are combing the area to neutralize any trapped militants. The operation will continue.”

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India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir over which both claim sovereignty.

Relations between the two countries deteriorated in January after New Delhi accused Pakistani troops of killing two of its soldiers, one of whom was beheaded, in a raid across the Kashmir Line of Control, the de facto frontier between the two states.

Mr Singh raised tensions further yesterday when he claimed the two terrorists shot dead in the attack were Pakistanis.

“Prima facie, the terrorists appear to be from across the border and were Pakistani nationals,” he said.

A man claiming to represent the Pakistan-based Hizbul Mujahideen group said it was responsible. A spokesman for the group, Baleeg-ud-Din called the news agency Kashmir News Network and threatened further attacks.

“It was a guerilla attack and Hizb militants will carry on these attacks in the future,” he said.

Police described the attack as the first serious terrorist raid on the city in three years, although one person was killed in an attack on a hotel last October, while five months earlier seven paramilitary troops were injured in a drive-by shooting.